Remember when fundraising was a door to door event? Or even the next age of fundraising, persistent and often unwanted phone calls around dinner time? Well modern applications have found a way around both of those bothersome methods of collecting funds.

Non-profit, Earth Hour and Crowdonomic, a crowdfunding platform based out of Singapore have partnered help use tech to address and tackle environmental issues. Oftentimes in the U.S. and the western world we do not think of environmental issues in the same light that others around the world would. In other words, many of us have reached a standard of living where environmental issues do not determine the quality of our day, week, month, or even year. If there is a climactic event or issue that limits the amount of apples that are yielded in one year, for example, most western consumers can simply elect to purchase pears or oranges. If cows are afflicted with a terrible disease that makes their meat inedible and their milk undrinkable, then many consumers can just buy soy or almond milk and substitute chicken into their diet. Although this lifestyle is comfortable and convenient, the majority of people around the world actually do not have this luxury. So if the apple crop really did fail this year, the livelihood, income, and sustenance for large groups of people are genuinely compromised. Perhaps the cows really were afflicted with a detrimental ailment, well, a year’s income may genuinely be severed, forcing drastic lifestyle changes. My pointing this out is not to indicate that these circumstances are the fault of one group or another, but rather to call attention to the fact that modern technology CAN present solutions. Many times, the humanities provide many poignant and critical questions, and just as often, technology can help answer these questions and provide resolutions.

“Projects seeking money currently include Bancas for the Philippines, which will introduce fiberglass boats to communities that lost fishing equipment in Super Typhoon Haiyan; Stop the Killing!, an effort to combat wildlife smuggling in Southeast Asia; and Restore The Roodeberg, which is raising funds to conserve South Africa’s Table Mountain National Park.”

Some projects are conserving habitats that are integral to the survival of ecosystems and ways of life for many people. Others are aiding by providing resources to reconstruct regions damaged by natural disasters. Whatever the issue may be, the application of technology to solve and draw attention (and funding) to problems that often do not receive the attention that they deserve will consequently help change more lives than we know.